This first piece of news comes as no surprise to any of us: Elder Scrolls Online is abandoning their subscription model in favour of a model similar to that of Guild Wars 2. According to PC Gamer.com, Bethesda has announced that they will discontinue their subscription model in March with player accounts being transferred over to the new format titled: “The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited.” However before you go onto their site and register an account, be aware that this game is still buy-to-play, meaning that in order to play the game you must buy the game first (akin to how Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 marketed their products). There will also be an in-game currency for microtansactions, but all of the specific details you can find at the link below this segment (because I am feeling lazy today, and will not recite the entire article for you (humor intended)).

Now this is of no surprise; the game was already suffering quite a bit to begin with, and with a subscription slapped on top of a game that many would call as a complete and total failure it is without question that the company is looking to salvage operations before the ship takes on too much water and sinks into the deep blue abyss. Even Angry Joe tore this game a new one in his video review; something that took us all by surprise as we expected ESO to be Skyrim Online. Instead it was revealed that questing with friends in the game is broken, the combat is boring, the leveling progression is unbearable, and income earning is slowed down to the point where a player has to fork over more cash just to get an edge in their leveling experience – this and the Imperial Race (the one touted to be able to join any faction) was locked off behind a pay gate. ESO – even when it goes buy-to-play – will not be on the list of games I pick up this year; I do not play broken pieces of trash, especially since my free time is limited.

Cortana is a feature that will appear in Microsoft’s new Windows 10, making the latest operating system part of a list of programs this AI functions on. On PCs with Windows 10 installed, Cortana will also be able to search local Hard Drives, One Drive, and One Drive for business to find files through natural queries. Adding to this Cortana will also be able to filter search results and then organize the results based on what she thinks is most relevant to what you (the user) wanted – this alongside the already existing features currently enjoyed by Windows Phone users.

Interesting; well I’ve always wanted a pseudo-AI in my machine – particularly in my car now that provincial legislation prevents me from touching my cell phone while driving. Long story short it is illegal to drive while talking or texting (safety issues and all), therefore the only way to answer incoming calls is to use hands-free technology like ear pieces, or wiring your entire cabin of the car to act as one giant ear piece (as a friend of mine did in the past). Cortana would come in handy at that point as she can help the driver organize quite a bit of data, answer calls for them (the driver still does the talking, but they can verbally command Cortana to answer the phone), and help them be a safer driver (because the road is caked with idiots who love to cut corners, speed, and otherwise behave like animals; though they probably won’t invest in this piece of tech so whatever).

Perhaps when Windows 10 is released, we can further examine Cortana’s functions – this is an interesting move, but one that might just work out in the end.